Page 123 of Deadly Misfortunes

Gregory called the sergeant and told her what was happening right now, in case she wanted to be at the scene since this undoubtedly was the same person who tried to kill him before. He couldn't imagine it wouldn't be.

"Oh, yeah, I heard about that. I didn’t know it involved you again. I'll be right there." She ended the call.

It was a tense standoff, but then the truck's engine caught fire.

They still didn't know if the driver was armed and dangerous, other than when he or she was driving the truck.

The interior of the cab of the truck began to smoke, and the driver struggled to get the driver’s door open.

"Come out of the vehicle with your hands up!" one of the officers shouted.

The driver finally wrenched the door open. But the truck was way on top of the car, and flames were everywhere.

"Show us your hands!" two of the officers shouted.

Then they rushed to get her out of the truck when she couldn’t climb down while the firemen put out the blaze.

From where Gregory and Sascha were standing, they couldn't see the driver until they pulled her beyond the truck and out of danger, then handcuffed her.

"That's Francine Drury," Gregory said.

Her forehead was bloodied, and Gregory figured she must have hit the windshield, airbag, or steering wheel when she crashed into them.

"I don't understand why anyone would risk their life to do this," Sascha said.

"I suspect she thought that she was going to destroy the car, me in it, and then she could make her get away like she had the other times, only this time, she couldn't."

"Talk about karma. Which makes me think of Red and him tearing up my place and why he would do it."

"We'll have to ask him."

Gregory wanted to do it right this minute, but then the sergeant showed up, and she shook her head. "Don't tell me that Ms. Lassiter forewarned you about all of this."

"She did. We tried to get ourselves out of trouble, but didn't quite make it," Gregory said.

Then one of the police officers came over to get their statement about the road rage incident and what had caused it. But the sergeant spoke up and said, "It wasn't a case of road rage."

"You're with homicide," one officer said.

"Yeah. Several attempts have been made on Mr. Landry’s life. This appears to be the last one, if Francine Drury was involved in the other cases."

Gregory explained how Francine had come after them on the highway, and though he tried to escape the confrontation, she managed to take the exit while nearly wiping out a couple of cars too.

The driver of the 18-wheeler had sent in video footage of her cutting him off and nearly causing an accident. Someone else had driven off the highway and reported they had video of the reckless driving also.

"Why did you do it?" the sergeant asked Francine after she had been read her Miranda rights.

"I didn't do anything."

They all looked at the truck sitting atop Gregory's car, both smoldering. A couple of tow trucks arrived.

The cashier's booth would have to be repaired.

Several eyewitnesses were giving their accounts, including one in which Francine had gone after Gregory like a mad woman.

When the police had gathered as much information as they could from all the witnesses, everyone began to leave. The sergeant asked Gregory if she could drop them off somewhere.

"I just texted someone for a ride," Sascha said. "Thanks."